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On Dec. 15, 1814 — 200 years ago — the Hartford Convention began a three-week debate about the relationship between the then 18 states and the federal government. The meeting was held in secret by New England members of the Federalist Party and there were nationwide fears that the Hartford Convention would call for New England's secession from the Union. New Englanders were unhappy over political concerns that they were being badly treated by the Union. Since Thomas Jefferson's election in 1800, the president had been a Southerner chosen by an electoral system that allowed the slave-holding Southern states to count each slave as 60 percent of a free person for their...

Related "John Adams" Articles

On Dec. 15, 1814 — 200 years ago — the Hartford Convention began a three-week debate about the relationship between the then 18 states and the federal government. The meeting was held in secret by New England members of the Federalist Party and there were...

Connecticut started with an innovation, called the "Constitution State" because it formed a formal government with what some say is the first ever such charter – the Fundamental Orders – in the late 1630s.
As the "Provision State," it...

Mark Twain nailed the description of a Connecticut Yankee innovator.
The year was 1889, less than a decade after Twain handed in perhaps the first book manuscript written on a typewriter. Hartford was, in the words of historian William Hosley,...

Think "Welsh-American" and you may be forgiven for thinking there are few of us and we had little to do with the history of the United States of America. However, the Welsh actually had a lot of influence in the birth and growth of this country....

After the British surrender at Yorktown brought a victorious end to the Revolutionary War in October 1781, The Courant's circulation slipped to 3,000. Looking for alternative sources of revenue, Hudson & Goodwin bought a few more paper mills and began...

Students from schools across Windham County gathered at the Hyde Cultural Center in Woodstock on Oct. 8 for a lesson in civics. The fourth- through eighth-grade students were treated to "We the People," a TheaterWorks USA musical about the...

Perhaps best known as the architect of President George W. Bush's successful 2000 and 2004 campaigns, Karl Rove has been described as a savvy mastermind, political pundit and the ultimate political strategist.
Rove, who served as Bush's senior adviser...

WETHERSFIELD — Thousands of people lost their lives during the American Revolution — not all of them on the battlefield.
Silas Deane fell victim to "vicious" character assassination, says Milton C. Van Vlack, author of the 2013 book,...

Connecticut's Roger Sherman was a man of distinctive character and talent. The signer of the Declaration of Independence, which we will celebrate Thursday, was reserved, awkward, quiet, even-tempered, open-minded and extraordinarily active. Sherman had...

"Our marriage is like the Electoral College," says the narrator in "Marooned," a Garrison Keillor short story. "It works OK if you don't think about it."
At noon Monday, I will be one of those thinking about the Electoral...

We're missing out on not being a battleground state in this year's presidential election. I mean, there's a lot of evil campaign commercials out there that we don't get to see. I feel cheated. Campaign commercials are designed to make the other guy...

The show: Connecticut Repertory Theatre's production of Theresa Rebeck's “O Beautiful”First Impressions: Playwright and TV writer Theresa Rebeck creates a messy, melodramatic work as she attempts to deal with the issues of school bullying, teen...

The Declaration of Independence, announced 236 years ago today by the Second Continental Congress, is the birth certificate of the United States of America. Its famous words are, or should be, known to all: "We hold these truths to be self-evident,...

In the 12 months we have to steel ourselves for the next State of the Union spectacle, let us count the ways that this spawn of democratic Caesarism — presidency-worship — has become grotesque. It would be the most embarrassing ceremony in the nation's...

HOW IT GOT ITS NAME: From the white cedars that reminded the Rev. James Fitch, a founding father, of the cedars of Lebanon mentioned in the Bible.
ORIGINS: Incorporated in 1700 from land grants and private land purchased by settlers directly from the...

In the years during and after the American Revolution, the two most powerful men in Connecticut may have been Jeremiah Wadsworth of Hartford and Roger Sherman of New Haven. Wadsworth's influence came from money. When he died in 1804, he left an estate so...

The most disturbing evidence of Connecticut's long and profitable complicity in slavery lies hidden in plain sight in the town of Salem, in the fields and woods around an ice cream bar near Routes 11 and 82. There, archaeologists from Central Connecticut...

Q: I have a ticket stub from April 1996 that says, "Top of the World at the World Trade Center." Does it have any value?
A: Ordinarily, ticket stubs from observation decks, restaurants, etc. have only sentimental value. But smart collectors...

Remember how history class at the start of every school year began with the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence? Some of it has long since blurred; some of it is fable. (See Question 11.) If you wanted to see the Declaration of...

"SPLENDID MISERY."
That was Thomas Jefferson's description of the job of the presidency.
I would say for some occupants of the White House -- the current inhabitant, for instance -- it might just be "miserable misery."
I CAME across...